The Negative Attitude Associated With Menstruation:

Carriere, D. (2003). The Negative Attitude Associated With Menstruation: A Resilient Influence In Women’s Psychological Development And Individuation(Doctoral dissertation, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2003).

This dissertation attempts to account for the resilience of the negative attitude associated with menstruation and identifies some of the ways that this attitude impedes women's psychological development and individuation. The negative attitude is evident in affects of shame and dread and in the values and behaviors that denigrate menstruation or dismiss it as a significant phenomenon.

This is a theoretical dissertation utilizing a hermeneutical method. The study in part proposes to destabilize dominant perspectives of women’s gynecological functions, thus allowing a new pattern to emerge. This goal will be achieved through an exploration and critique of clinical approaches to menstrual-related phenomena.

The study reveals that masculine values and early cultural perceptions of women underlie contemporary research on menstrual-related disorders despite advanced medical knowledge, decades of feminist scholarship, and integrated treatment acknowledge women’s sujective experiences of discomfort and illness These approaches have not significantly contributed towards changing the negative attitude associated with menstruation. The study finds that dominant research approaches continue to rely upon methods that support the fundamental split of mind and body and therefore unwittingly participate in maintaining the negative attitude associated with menstruation.

The study suggests that there is evidence that menstrual phenomena can have a significant role in women's psychological development and individuation It is suggested that images found in mythology could be helpful in fostering women’s discovery of menstruation as psychologically significant. Images found in mythology are proposed to be helpful due to the diminished life these images have in Western culture; they therefore serve to awaken libido in the unconscious and serve to bridge the gap in women’s experiences of themselves as alienated from an innate source of self. The psychotherapy relationship is discussed as an initiatory experience for women and has the potential to utilize the significance of women’s bodies in psychological development and individuation.